In times when everything has become unpredictable, you might think that a bit of routine would do us good.
For example, in discussions that have already been held several times and the outcome of which is already certain before they start again.
Everyone involved plays their roles according to a specific script without having to think too much about it.
As a married couple, we also have our readymade talks.
Our classic: the kitchen – do we need a new one?
The trigger varies: Sometimes it's the extractor hood that gives up the ghost just when the Pakistani dish is simmering;
sometimes the drawer almost falls apart if you just want to get a spoon quickly.
Whatever it is, we both quickly find ourselves in our element with the well-established arguments and counter-arguments: “long overdue”, “too expensive”, “we’re not on the kibbutz anymore”, “we’ll move at some point anyway”.
After a few laps the energy is gone, only one thing is certain: that it will soon start again.
Where is the gain in knowledge?
It's not just like that at home.
Public discussions are hardly any different - let's take the debate about New Year's Eve.
After police officers and rescue workers in Berlin were attacked by young people with firecrackers, everyone is talking again about young migrants and the (supposedly) failed integration policy.
Nothing new: As with our kitchen, this debate in the umpteenth round will not bring any new insights.
The integration debate genre is not a German invention, but it seems to have been perfected here.
The formula is simple: if a violent act is committed by young men with a migration background, public outrage follows in the media, first and foremost in the Springer press.
Then politicians and integration experts rush into the talk shows and demand, in the Pavlovian reflex: “Consequences!
The subtext: The normative "good" behavior is "German culture", deviating "bad" behavior is externalized as "foreign culture".
Right at the front: Friedrich Merz.
Most recently, in Markus Lanz's panel discussion, the CDU leader took the riots in Berlin as an opportunity to let resentments run free, packaged as solidarity with German teachers: allegedly, many migrant students would not recognize them.
Their fathers would appear in schools when their children were being criticized by teachers.
"Especially when it comes to teachers, that they correct their sons, the little pashas, sometimes."